Murray, Stuart (1837 - 1919)

Summary

Stuart Murray was engineer-in-chief, Water Supply Department, Victoria 1886-1906. He was responsible for a number of major water conservance works, his greatest being the Goulburn Weir, of which he was co-designer, with the Waranga storage and its channels (Stuart Murray Canal).

Details

Educated St Andrews (land and mining surveyor, architect and civil engineer). Arrived Victoria 1855; practised his professions at Kyneton; government mining surveyor, Daylesford for six years; engineer, United Echuca and Waranga Waterworks Trust 1882-84; secretary, royal commission on water supply 1884-86; engineer-in-chief, Water Supply Department 1886-1906; chairman, State Rivers and Water Supply Commission 1906-08.

Chronology

1849 - 1852

Education - Madras College, St.Andrews, Scotland

1853 - 1854

Career position - Working in a foundry, chiefly learning mechanical work and pattern making

1855

Life event - Arrived Melbourne, Victoria

1864

Education - Diploma as Surveyor, Melbourne

1867

Career event - Granted Certificate of competency as a Mining Surveyor

1870

Career event - Granted Certificate of Competency as Engineer and Surveyor (CE), (2nd Class Cert B2), Shires Statute and Boroughs Statute 1869 VIC

1883 - 1884

Career position - Engineer, Echuca and Waranga United Waterworks Trust

1883 - 1886

Career position - Engineer, Kyneton Shire Waterworks Trust

1884 - 1886

Career position - Secretary, Royal Commission on Water Supply

1886 - 1906

Career position - Engineer-in-chief, Victorian Water Supply Department

1902

Career position - Commissioner of the "Interstate Royal Commission on the River Murray"

6 Dec 1904

Career event - Member (MInstCE), Institution of Civil Engineers, London

1906 - 1908

Career position - Chairman, State Rivers and Water Supply Commission

Related entries

Published resources

Books

• Cumming, D. A., Some Public Works Engineers in Victoria in the Nineteenth Century (Melbourne: University of Melbourne, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, 1985), 59 pp. pp.23-24. Details

Book Sections

• Yule, Valerie, 'Murray, Stuart (1837-1919), civil engineer and administrator' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 5: 1851 - 1890 K-Q, Douglas Pike, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1974), pp. 322-323. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A050368b.htm. Details

Journal Articles

• Churchyard, J. N., 'Pioneers of Irrigation in Australia, Number 3. Stuart Murray. Engineer and Administrator', Aqua: Official Journal of the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission, Victoria (1956), 68-70. Details
• Murray, S., 'The ranging of straight lines in forest country', Transactions and Proceedings of the Victorian Institute of Surveyors, 1 (1874-1880), 68-71. Details
• Murray, S., 'Adjustment of the vertical limb of the theodolite', Transactions and Proceedings of the Victorian Institute of Surveyors, 1 (1874-1880), 9-11. Details
• Murray, S., 'Reduction of errors by repetition of observations', Transactions and Proceedings of the Victorian Institute of Surveyors, 1 (1874-1880), 101-106. Details
• Murray, S., 'Astronomical checks on bearings', Transactions and Proceedings of the Victorian Institute of Surveyors, 1 (1874-1880), 12-25. Details
• Murray, Stuart, 'The Coliban system of works of Water Supply and the Upper Coliban Reservoir', Transactions and Proceedings of the Victorian Institute of Surveyors, 6 (1910-1919), 9-20. Details
• Murray, Stuart, 'The limit of practical error in levelling', Transactions and Proceedings of the Victorian Institute of Surveyors, 3 (1885-1891), 183-185. Details
• Murray, Stuart, 'Adjustment and use of the Level, and limits of practical error in levelling', Transactions and Proceedings of the Victorian Institute of Surveyors, 2 (1880-1884), 61-65. Details
• Murray, Stuart, 'Some remarks on the Surveyor's Star Catalogue', Transactions and Proceedings of the Victorian Institute of Surveyors, 2 (1880-1884), 23-25. Details
• Murray, Stuart, 'Supplementary notes to a paper on Laplace's theory of the Cosmogony', Transactions and Proceedings of the Victorian Institute of Surveyors, 6 (1910-1919), 95-100. Details
• Murray, Stuart, 'Amsler's electrically recording current meter', Transactions and Proceedings of the Victorian Institute of Surveyors, 5 (1900-1909), 113-120. Details
• Murray, Stuart, 'Laplace's theory of the Cosmogony', Transactions and Proceedings of the Victorian Institute of Surveyors, 6 (1910-1919), 65-94. Details
• Murray, Stuart, 'River gauging', Transactions and Proceedings of the Victorian Institute of Surveyors, 4 (1891-1899), 21-28. Details
• Murray, Stuart, 'The surface of Mean Sea as datum for levels', Transactions and Proceedings of the Victorian Institute of Surveyors, 6 (1910-1919), 45-64. Details
• Murray, Stuart, 'The sewerage of Geelong', Transactions and Proceedings of the Victorian Institute of Surveyors, 6 (1910-1919), 31-44. Details

Parliamentary papers

• Interstate Royal Commission on the River Murray, Interstate Royal Commission on the River Murray, representing the states of New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia : Report of the Commissioners, with minutes of evidence, appendices and plans (Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide: 1902), 60, 359 pp. https://pov.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_GB/parl_paper/search/detailnonmodal/ent:$002f$002fSD_ILS$002f0$002fSD_ILS:34095/one. Member of the Commission, State of Victoria. Details
• Royal Commission on Water Supply (1884-1887), Royal Commission on Water Supply : further [i.e. second] progress report (Melbourne: John Ferres, Government Printer, 1885), 46 pp, https://pov.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_GB/parl_paper/search/detailnonmodal/ent:$002f$002fSD_ILS$002f0$002fSD_ILS:3832/one. Secretary of Royal Commission. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q21538334. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/42083240. Details
• Institution of Civil Engineers, London, 'Application: 12290, 1904', Civil Engineer Membership Forms, 1818-1930, ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com.au/search/collections/3585/. Details
• 'Murray, Stuart (1837-1919)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-559509. Details

See also

• Directory for cities, towns, boroughs, shires and districts in the colony of Victoria for 1875 (Melbourne: Evans Brothers, 1875), 184 pp, http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-393176554. Granted Certicate of Competency as Engineer and Surveyor under the Shires and Boroughs Statutes: p.v. Details
• Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Technology in Australia 1788-1988, Online edn, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, 3 May 2000, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/index_m.html. Details